Noise generated by an aircraft as it approaches a runway during landing can be objectionable to surrounding communities. The noise generated by the aircraft on approach to the runway includes primarily two components. The first component is the noise generated by the engines of the aircraft. The second component includes the noise generated by the aircraft's landing gear pushing through the air.
For decades, the noise generated by the aircraft's engines had been the dominant source of noise generated by the aircraft during landing. Accordingly, noise reducing efforts have traditionally focused on reducing the magnitude of the noise generated by the aircraft's engines. These efforts have been fruitful, and as a result of these efforts, the noise generated by the aircraft's engines during landing is now typically no louder than the noise generated by the landing gears during landing. Therefore, to further diminish the noise generated by the aircraft during landing, the noise attributed to the landing gears needs to be reduced.
It has been found that conventional nose landing gear arrangements are particularly prone to generating objectionable noise during approach and landing. A conventional nose landing gear arrangement includes a wheel assembly that is operatively coupled to a main strut (e.g., typically via a shock strut or piston) and a follow-up door that is hingedly attached to both the main strut and the fuselage. The follow-up door serves two functions. First, when the nose landing gear arrangement is in the retracted position in which it is housed within the fuselage, the follow-up door is flush with the fuselage to provide a continuous outer surface with the fuselage. Second, when the nose landing gear arrangement is actuated via force from the aircraft's hydraulic system, the follow-up door moves with the main strut to form an opening in the fuselage to allow the main strut to be extended outside of the fuselage to position the wheel assembly for landing. As the nose landing gear arrangement is being extended, airflow passes over the follow-up door to facilitate moving the nose landing gear arrangement to the fully extended position, which serves as a backup to the hydraulic system in the event of any hydraulic issues. The airflow passing over the nose landing gear arrangement when in the fully extended position is made especially turbulent by the follow-up door producing a loud and undesirable noise as the aircraft approaches the airfield for landing.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide nose landing gear arrangements for aircrafts that reduce airflow noise such as when the nose landing gear arrangement is in an extended position during an approach to landing, aircrafts including such nose landing gear arrangements, and methods for making such nose landing gear arrangements. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background.